(PhysOrg.com) -- "Why is everybody suddenly wearing those new sandals and listening to that new band? It's so trendy!" A recent study has investigated this sentiment in order to understand why some cultural products and styles ...
Human eggs use chemical signals to attract sperm. New research from Stockholm University and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust shows that eggs use these chemical signals to choose sperm. Different women's eggs attract ...
Evolution
Jun 9, 2020
10
9885
A team of researchers at Université Paris Diderot has found evidence that suggests humans are able to detect via smell which partners are genetically preferable. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society ...
Neuroscientists have, for the first time, shown that gut bacteria "speak" to the brain to control food choices in animals. In a study publishing April 25 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, researchers identified two ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 25, 2017
3
4365
From Beats headphones' rise to prominence or a political candidate's surge in the polls to how ants and bees select a new nest site, decisions emerging from groups frequently occur without a leader.
Mathematics
Sep 18, 2015
3
1466
Among many species, breeding preferences and tactics can differ among males and females. When aggressive behavior by males toward unreceptive females goes awry, it may result in failure to reproduce, and in some cases, fatality ...
Women from elite backgrounds are much less likely than men to end up in the most economically rewarding jobs, but they are no less likely to hold prestigious jobs that are respected in society.
Social Sciences
Dec 14, 2023
0
103
Fish will mate with a species outside their own if the male's colouring is attractive enough or if the female can't see him properly, according to new research.
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2019
7
1446
The way legislators, experts and other opinion leaders discuss the role of parents and schools in reducing educational inequalities has changed dramatically since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first passed in ...
Social Sciences
Aug 18, 2012
25
0
What if Darwin was wrong?
Evolution
Feb 2, 2016
2
468
Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?"), often a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action. For example, a route for a journey is chosen based on the preference of arriving at a given destination as soon as possible. The preferred (and therefore chosen) route is then derived from information about how long each of the possible routes take. This can be done by a route planner. If the preference is more complex, such as involving the scenery of the route, cognition and feeling are more intertwined, and the choice is less easy to delegate to a computer program or assistant.
More complex examples (often decisions that affect what a person thinks or their core beliefs) include choosing a lifestyle, religious affiliation, or political position.
Most people regard having choices as a good thing, though a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing and possibly, an unsatisfactory outcome. In contrast, unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
